Goddess of the Heavens
by Sanura Bey
Summary: Twenty years ago, Amaterasu made a selfish request. Now, 16-year-old Sora Momozono, Nanami's twin sister, joins her through her journey of learning how to be a Tochigami. What was the request Amaterasu made of Mikage? What secrets about herself will Sora discover?
1. Mikage Shrine

**"Mikage, I need your help with something..."**

* * *

 _Hello. My name is Sora Momozono._

"Dad, the loan sharks broke a window again," my twin sister Nanami told our father as she patched up the window again.

"Are you making your payments on time?" I asked as I cooked our dinner.

"Don't worry, Nanami, Sora!" Dad told us. "Daddy's going to win big at the races and pay them back all at once!"

"You're gambling again?" I sighed annoyed by his antics.

"OH NO! THIS MONTH'S FOOD MONEY IS GONE!" Nanami shouted.

 _I live with my twin sister and father in a really old apartment._

"I'll strike it rich, Nanami! Sora!"

"Dad, you're such a loser!"

* * *

 _We're barely managing to survive while Nanami and I support a father with a gambling problem. Nanami and I can't do much for lunch and we must make do with rice._

"What's with your lunch?" Nanami's lunch was taken from her desk. "Hey, everyone, look! Momozono only has rice for lunch!"

"So sad!"

"How pathetic!"

 _Even though we suffer every day... someday..._

"Your new name is broke-nami!" I snatched the lunch box back from our classmate's hands before giving it back to Nanami.

"Leave her alone," the man paled.

 _Someday we'll be able to spend our days smiling. At least that's what we thought..._

* * *

"We're home!" Nanami called out to our dad.

"Dad, did you replace the glass in the window yet?" I asked him, but when we finally looked into our home it was empty. "Dad?"

 _...until that day._

Someone banged on the door behind us.

"Mr. Momozono. Please open the door." I turned and opened the door as Nanami went to the table to pick up a note. "The court is enforcing your eviction. Where's your father?" Nanami handed me the note and my eyes widened.

I'm going on a trip.

Sorry.

Don't look for me.

-Dad

 _ **"What? What? What on earth is going on?!"**_

* * *

That night found us in the park sitting on a bench.

"Th... This is really bad..." I sighed sinking towards the ground.

"THAT BLOODY BASTARD!" Nanami shouted out. "How can a grown man run away from home, leaving us debts and his daughters behind?!"

"Obviously not that hard," I said looking down at my hands in my lap sadly. Dad was all we had left...

"We were kicked out of the apartment. Where are we going to live?!" Nanami asked before her stomach growled. "I'm hungry..."

"Don't worry, Nanami," I tried assuring her. "I'm sure we'll find something."

"How?" she asked me. "We're homeless, have no relatives, and no money. What should we do?" We heard a dog barking and a man crying out.

"Noooo!" I looked towards the noise before going there with Nanami behind me. "Somebody! Please make that dog go away!" I looked to see a dog barking at a man in a tree. Nanami and I shooed away the dog before the man climbed down the tree.

"Are you all right?" Nanami asked him.

"Excuse me, I don't like dogs..."

"Yeah, we noticed that," I told him. "This is my first time back here in a long time, but a dog barked at me right away... heh heh. It looks like the residents don't welcome me... Do you live here too?" he asked us.

"Us?" I asked him before looking down.

"Yes... but... we don't have a place to live anymore..." Nanami told him before telling him about our recent troubles. _**What a strange man. Does he have problems too?**_

"I see... your father ran away from home... You must really hate him for that." The man started crying and Nanami laughed at him while I just sighed.

"Well, he's always been trouble," Nanami told him.

"I'm embarrassed to tell you this, but I ran away too," he told us. "It's been decades now. I wonder how everyone's doing. Tomoe will attack me as soon as I get home." **_Tomoe? Is that his wife or partner or something?_**

"Still you're lucky to have a home to go back to," I told him thinking about all those years ago when home felt warm and protected.

"Sora, Nanami... I'll give you my home," he told us and I stared at him shocked as he got off the bench and stood in front of us. "I can't leave it unattended forever. If you two live there, it'll take a load off my shoulders. And... you are much better suited to be the master of that house than I am." He kissed Nanami's forehead and he placed his hand on my head before handing me a map. "Go to the place on this map. Tell them Mikage sent you and everyone will welcome you as their new masters." **_Their new masters?_**

"Should we go?" Nanami asked me and I nodded.

"Where else can we go?" I asked her.

* * *

We made our way to the place on the map to see a shrine.

"We follow that guy's directions and end up... at a haunted shrine..." I sighed as Nanami dropped to her hands and knees.

"This is what it means to "add insult to injury"," Nanami said. "I will never trust grown-ups again."

"Mikage-sama." I looked around when we heard a voice calling for the guy we'd met. "Welcome back, Mikage-sama." Strange blue fire appeared before us and we screamed in fear. "Oh, Mikage-sama."

"Please wait, Mikage-sama!" We ran into the shrine, thinking we'd be safe as we slammed the door shut.

"Mikage." We froze and turned to the voice to see someone in a kimono. "It's been a while, Mikage. Where've you been all this time? You made me take care of your house for twenty years!" **_A... Yokai..._** "I'll kill ya!" The Yokai started to attack us and we screamed.

"No... We're... not Mikage!" He froze and the three of us all stared at each other.

"Onikiri! Kotetsu!"

"Yes, Tomoe-dono," one of the voices from before answered.

"These are not Mikage," Tomoe told the spirits. They suddenly transformed into two people who looked like kids wearing kimonos and masks.

"How can that be?" the one with the female mask asked. "But she has the mark of the Tochigami-sama on her forehead." I looked at Nanami's forehead and saw a slight glow. _**Was that from Mikage's kiss?**_

"And I can sense Mikage-sama's aura coming from her, slightly," the one with the man's mask said.

"But she's not Mikage," Tomoe told the floating pair. **_What are these things?_** "Hey, women." I looked from my twin to Tomoe who was now sitting between the spirits. "Who the hell are you?" **_Did we wander into a Yokai shrine?!_**

* * *

"He said he'd give you his house?" Tomoe asked us after we told them the story.

"We told him we had nowhere to live and he told us to come here," Nanami told him as I handed him the map Mikage had given us.

"Yes, this horrible handwriting is Mikage's," Tomoe said looking at it. "The man you met is the Tochigami of this land."

"So he's a Yokai too?!" Nanami asked and I hit her head gently.

"He said Tochigami, not Yokai," I corrected her.

"And this is the shrine of the Tochigami," Tomoe continued as if we hadn't spoken at all. "He gave you his position as master of this shrine. That means he also made you the new Tochigami." **_She's the Tochigami now?! If that's true then that would explain why_ Nanami _could see them, but why can I?_**

"Well, congratulations!" the female masked one said. "Our Tochigami-sama has returned to the shrine!"

"We must prepare a feast!" the other one said.

"Wait!" Nanami started protesting. "I can't-"

"Please have them, Nanami-sama," one of the spirits told her holding up fish and other food for her to eat. We hadn't eaten since that morning and the food looked delicious.

"So she's a kami now?" Tomoe asked gripping her chin between his fingers. I slapped his hand away from her face and stood between them. "And this one can see us? What can two shabby girls like you two do?! Counting offerings and weeding the garden is about all you're good for! I will not accept her!"

"Tomoe-dono! But Mikage-sama recommended her," the female masked one said.

"We don't need her. Throw them out!" Tomoe ordered.

"You're being pretty rude considering your master is the one who told us to come here!" I yelled at him.

"No one would give offerings at a ruined shrine like this!" Nanami yelled at him. "I refuse to become a Tochigami!"

"Nanami!" I scolded before seeing the look on Tomoe's face.

"Come, come, please do not say that," the male masked spirit said. "We all welcome Nanami-sama!"

"If that woman is staying here, I'm leaving," Tomoe told them.

"Tomoe-dono?!"

"I'm Mikaga's Shinshi. I will not serve that woman. Ask a stray dog to take my place." He disappeared in a cloud of smoke and I sighed. _**This is so strange. I hope it'll make sense when we wake up.**_

* * *

I woke up to Nanami's yawning and sitting up, pulling the covers away from both of us.

"I had a good night's sleep," she yawned and I stretched, still laying down. "Huh? Where are we?" I opened my eyes and looked around. _**Are we in that shrine still?**_ "I feel like I had lots of dreams... But I don't remember."

"Good morning, Nanami-sama. Sora-sama." I sat up and saw the two small spirits kneeling before us, well Nanami. "It is time for work."

* * *

"We will first begin by purifying the garden. We drive out all impurities so evil spirits cannot enter," they told us.

"Let us sweep the dead leaves."

"I haven't said anything about becoming a Tochigami," Nanami reminded them.

"How can you say that?!" they asked appalled at her words.

"Tomoe-dono has left..."

"So Nanami-sama is the only one who can protect this shrine!"

"Uh... all right..."

"Hey... what are your names?" I asked them finally.

"I'm Onikiri," the female mask said.

"And I'm Kotetsu," the other added. _**Well, at least we'll know their names now.**_

"We are the Onigiwarashi who serve this shrine!" Kotetsu said.

"You may ask us anything!" Onikiri added.

"And the guy we met yesterday...?" I said.

"Tomoe-dono is the Shinshi who serves Makage-sama," Onikiri told me. "He used to be a wile fox, but Mikage-sama decided to have Tomoe-dono serve him, instead of the usual Komainu guard dogs because Mikage-sama does not like dogs."

"Yes, we learned that last night," I mumbled. _**Of course, that wasn't all we learned...**_

* * *

 **"Sora-sama!" I turned around to see the two spirits from before. I'd been getting ready for bed and was standing in my pants and a tank top. "You have the mark of the great Omikami!"**

 **"Omikami?" I asked them.**

 **"The great goddess Amaterasu-sama was Miakage-sama's dearest friend, but she disappeared some years ago."**

 **"How does a goddess disappear?" I asked them.**

 **"We don't know. We only know that one day she was at her shrine and the next she was gone," they told me.**

* * *

 _ **This is so weird. How did I get the mark of an Omikami, let alone Amaterasu-omikami...**_ I helped Nanami with the chores around the shrine for some time until we had to separate. While she stayed inside to take care of the shrine itself, I went outside to weed the garden. I wasn't aware of what I was doing really until I cut myself.

"Ow..." I put my finger in my mouth.

"You're taking all this time just to weed the garden?" I turned to see Tomoe standing behind me. "You and that girl are totally useless."

"What do you want?" I asked him going back to the garden. "Didn't you leave because you were unhappy with what your master requested. My sister and I are busy taking care of your home."

"Your sister won't make it as a Tochigami," he told me. "You two must have run away from home. Why don't you go back before you fail?"

"We didn't run away. Our father ran away to escape his debts and we were evicted from our home. If we leave we have nowhere else to go," I told him. He was silent for a moment before he spoke again.

"It's none of my business."

"Then why'd you ask?!" I shouted at him.

"Sora, try not to touch the things in the shrine." **_What a jerk..._**

* * *

I joined Nanami as Onikiri and Kotetsu dropped books in front of her.

"I've had enough," she sighed as I picked up one of the books.

"This is twenty years worth of prayers," Onikiri told her.

"Twenty years?!" Nanami shouted picking up a book. **_The handwriting is so beautiful._**

"Tomoe-dono wrote them down," Kotetsu told us and I looked at them shocked. "He wanted Mikage-sama to look at them when he returned because Tochigami-sama left, the number of worshippers greatly deceased, but because Tomoe-dono managed the shrine worshippers do sometimes visit."

"Tomoe... did..." I said

"The duties we had Nanami-sama and Sora-sama performed today..."

"...were all done by Tomoe-dono himself," the spirits told us. **_Is that why they didn't help? Because Tomoe did all this instead of them?_**

"The shrine is in really bad shape, but it was very clean," Nanami said as I looked through the book in my hand. **_These prayers are so detailed. I can only imagine Tomoe writing down all the prayers of what few worshippers they still had._**

"Do you understand now, Nanami-sama? Nanami-sama needs Tomoe-dono! Come, come, let us go get-"

"Will you let us stay just one more night?" Nanami asked the pair behind us. "I can't be a kamisama... I'm just an ordinary high school student. I don't have any special powers. I'm really sorry." Nanami bowed to the pair as they stared at her. **_Will we really be able to apologize to him tomorrow? We should, even if he is a jerk._**


	2. The Other Side

_"Are you sure you want to do this?" a man asked me and I nodded my head. "To turn your back on your responsibilities here..."_

 _"Someone will cover for me while I'm gone," I said. "You and I both know my powers won't stay slumbering forever."_

 _"Will a human body be able to hold your powers at all?" I thought about it for a moment._

 _"Not at first, but eventually the body will regulate itself." I turned to my friend and smiled sadly at him. "I have to do this. You've been away from your shrine for four years already. I'd hoped you'd understand my request."_

* * *

I woke up at stared at the shrine's ceiling blinking away the sleep. What was that dream? Beside me, Nanami stretched her arms into the air.

"Today, we're leaving the shrine," she sighed and I just watched her.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I asked her sitting up in my futton.

"We already talked about this, didn't we?" she asked getting up to change.

"But still..."

* * *

 **"You have the mark of the great Omikami!"**

* * *

"Nanami-sama! Sora-sama!" the spirits cried as they ran through the shrine to stop us from leaving.

"Are you really leaving?"

"Please do think it over!"

"Thank you for letting us stay," Nanami said as we bowed to the two.

"Oh no!"

"You've already packed!" Yesterday, Nanami somehow ended up becoming a kamisama and I learned I had the mark a kamisama, but we're only high school students. We decided to leave the shrine to try and find a new place to stay. Besides, we shouldn't stay where all the members of the household didn't want us, and Tomoe definitely didn't want us there.

"We are the spirits of this shrine!"

"We cannot afford to lose our Tochigami-sama. We must have Tomoe-dono become a Shinshi again," they cried.

"Uh, about Tomoe..." Nanami started saying. "Where is Tomoe now? We'd like to say goodbye to him too."

"Then I shall go look for Tomoe-dono!" Kotetsu said running away from us.

"Wait!" I called after him. "We wanted to apologize to him. We can't make him come to us."

"So, we'll go see him," Nanami decided.

"We do not mind, but Tomoe-dono is probably no longer in this world," they told us. "You need to go to the other side."

"The other side?" We asked as they started to lead us to where we needed to go. "Behind the grass and inside the well; the darkness of all kinds is the entrance to it. The world of the Mononoke, which lies between the world of the living and the dead. Humans who look into the darkness will be transported there. To another world right next to ours."

"So this is it?" Nanami asked as we entered what looked like a traditional Japanese village. Is this really where Tomoe is?

* * *

"Tomoe-dono! Is Tomoe-dono here?!" The spirits called out as they led us through what could only be a brothel type of place.

"Keep your voices down, you two," I heard Tomoe order. "What do you want?"

"Tomoe-dono!" They gasped in shock.

"How deplorable! You're a Shinshi and you're in a house of ill repute, in broad daylight!" Kotetsu cried.

"If Mikage-sama finds out, he will grieve so!" Onikiri cried.

"Well, Mikage's not around anymore," Tomoe reminded them. "I can drink sake. I can kill. I can do what I want."

"Tomoe-dono, please change right away!" Kotetsu told him before turning to the two women in the room. "And you two leave now."

"How dare you?!" They cried out startled before stomping on him. "You're just an Onibiwarashi! You two leave instead!"

"Exactly," Tomoe agreed with them.

"Please return to the shrine, Tomoe-dono! And become Nanami-sama's Shinshi!" Kotetsu begged him.

"Do you want to see the shrine ruined?" Onikiri asked him.

"I don't care." I felt Nanami stiffen next to me and I held her hand. "It's none of my business. I'm glad I quit being a Shinshi. It was a pain. Now I'm going to spend lazy days doing whatever I want."

"Tomoe-dono... Nanami-sama and Sora-sama... wanted to see Tomoe-dono... so they came with us." Tomoe's eyes slammed open as he stared up at us in shock. "Nanami-sama, a word please."

"I... I have nothing to say," Nanami said darkly.

"Why'd you bring them here?!" Tomoe shouted at the spirits.

"Nanami-sama and Sora-sama insisted on it," Onikiri told him rubbing the back of his (her?) head.

"How could you bring a human here?! Take her back right away," Tomoe ordered them.

"Nanami-sama and Sora-sama aren't ordinary humans," they reminded him. "They're the Tochigami-sama."

"That's even worse!"

"If you'll excuse us," I said interrupting them. "We have a bus to catch."

"Nanami-sama! Sora-sama!"

* * *

That stupid fox! How could he say that about his home?

"Hey. Hey, girl..." I turned to see a hand reaching for Nanami who had dropped to the ground and was holding her knees to her chest. "Come in..." The hand grasped her wrist and I quickly went back to pull her back. I heard something whack on flesh before falling on my butt and looking up to see Tomoe holding a fan to his chin.

"You two are just food for the guys here," he told us. "Go back where humans belong. Get up." He reached a hand out to us. "I'll take you h-" I slapped him and he stared at me in shock.

"You idiot!" I shouted at him. "You're the one who should be going back to your home! Can you really abandon it so easily?! After all the memories you've made in that place?! It's your home!"

"Wha...?" he asked confused. "What the...? You can't even protect yourself. So don't you lecture me!"

"You're the one who's been acting superior since we met you!"

"If I leave you two here, a Mononoke will eat you! So lecture me while you still can!"

"Why will they eat us?!" Nanami asked him.

"Two girls with Tochigami powers residing within them. You're like a sitting duck, in a pot... with some leeks!" He told us. "But it's none of my business!"

"Nothing will happen to us if you leave us alone!" Nanami shouted before turning her back on him. "May we go now?"

"Take them away!" Tomoe ordered Onikiri and Kotatsu. "I won't help even if they come crying to me."

"Let's leave," Nanami ordered.

"We have to catch the bus!"

* * *

"Nanami-sama! Sora-sama! Please wait!" I couldn't believe they followed us from the shrine down to the bus stop. "You must not leave!"

"Looks like we missed the bus," Nanami sighed as the spirits sobbed next to us.

"You must somehow have Tomoe-dono become your Shinshi," They told Nanami.

"It's a three-hour wait until the next bus," I sighed falling to my butt again with a sigh.

"If Tomoe-dono agrees to a Shinshi contract Tomoe-dono will be completely loyal to Nanami-sama." What kind of life is that? I wondered.

"Really?" Nanami asked them.

"Yes. That is one of the Tochigami's abilities." Okay, that could be tempting.

"So, how do I make him my Shinshi?" Nanami asked.

It is easy," Onikiri told her. "Nanami-sama only needs to kiss Tomoe-dono. Then Tomoe-dono will become Nanami-sama's faithful servant! You can make him do anything!" While they were telling Nanami all this, Nanami grabbed my hand and drug me behind a tree to hide from them. Nanami's other hand on her chest and she had a panicked look on her face. I wanted to laugh at her, but I couldn't do it with the spirits still looking for us.

"Hello, miss. Excuse me." Nanami and I turned to see an old woman laying on her side. "But will you lend me a hand? I sprained my ankle on a step..." Nanami didn't think twice about it before picking her up and taking her home with me carrying her stuff.

* * *

"Thank you for helping me miss," the woman said once we'd gotten to her home. "Thank you for bringing me home."

"Well... I don't have anything else to do."

"You two must have had a hard time carrying me and my things on your back," she said worriedly.

"No, no, I work out!" I gave Nanami a look. What a liar! "I should go now."

"Ah, come, come. Wait," she told us as we rose to our feet. "It's already dark outside. I can't have two young girls walking a dark countryside road alone. Stay the night, if you don't mind this shabby house."

"All right?" Nanami said questioningly. She showed us to a room and we took off our jackets. This wasn't normal and something about this felt off.

"Miss." I turned to look at her kneeling at the door. "If you like, please change into these clothes." She supplied two white kimonos for us to sleep in.

"Wow. Thank you."

"You're so beautiful." The woman put her hand on Nanami's face and moved her bangs which made me tense up. Why did I do that? She's been nothing but nice to us. "Where did you get that mark on your forehead?" I stared up at her in slight shock. She could see the mark Mikage gave her? "Well I shouldn't disturb you anymore. Have a good night's sleep, miss."

* * *

I couldn't sleep that night. Something about that woman kept bugging me, but what was it? That was, of course, I heard someone walking down the halls. I tensed up, ready to run with Nanami when our door opened. I did my best to slowly grab Nanami's hand.

"Nanami-sma... Sora-sama... Onikiri is here." I sighed loudly at Onikiri.

"Onikiri! Why're you here?" Nanami shouted at him.

"I followed Nanami-sama and Sora-sama's scent and found you. I did not think you would have wandered into a place like this..."

"A place like this?" I asked worriedly. I knew something was off.

"Hey... are you alright?" Nanami asked.

"Yes. I'm short of breath because I ran over two mountains..." Onikiri told us. "Nanami-sama... Sora-sama... we must leave right away!"

"Huh?" Nanami asked confused.

"You two must not stay here. An Onibaba lives here!"


End file.
